GH2 Video with Native lenses ?? from a newb...

Hi all. Complete newb to the gh2 and gonna try my hand at using it for video as I only bought it most for stills. I have the following lenses to use it on it and having looked at the 14-140 in videos (had it for stills last year but wasn't impressed) was not sure if I should purchase it yet. I have the Oly 12/2, Oly 45/1.8, Panaleica 25/1.4, Panny 100-300, and about to buy a Panaleica 45 macro. I want to break into the video but by using the IA function which I gather the camera does the lens focusing for me. Am I correct in that I ca use this feature with all these lenses or just the Panny ones? Any help, insight, pointers to good articles for a newb would be tremendous! Thanks all!

I am new to this as well, but my understanding is that autofocus will work with any lens that autofocuses in camera mode, however if the lense is not meant for video the autofocus motor might be loud and get picked up by the mic. I know that panasonic puts HD on the lenses that they consider good for video. Also the panasonic lenses with image stabilization will work in video mode which is a huge plus for handheld.

If you don't know this already the Gh2 is THE 4/3 camera for video, you can hack it to increase detail and all sorts of other cool stuff.

Truth be told, autofocus when videoing will probably cause more problems than it solves as it will often focus on the wrong thing.

The conventional approach with video is manual everything, focus, exposure.

depending on the kind of videos you want to make, I would suggest making sure you have some additional audio equipment to capture the sound, a good tripod with a fluid video head, a decent computer with editing software.

I would also suggest a trip to your local bookstore... if you have one ! and see if there are any books on the basics of video making. Its a complex process, but can be very rewarding

I've been thinking lately that transitioning from auto to manual is the wrong way around. Start with manual everything, as much as possible. The GH2, luckily, has nearly all manual control options. Manual focus, manual exposure, etc. Learn how to do that well, even if it's slow and painful. Then consider transitioning to (semi)automatic modes once you understand what they do and don't accomplish, and how best to control them.

That said, unlike photos there's a very strong case to be made that manual is the strongest approach in video.

I'm a producer with BBC tv in England. I bought the gh2 over Christmas and have already used it a few times in anger for broadcast. It's an amazingly powerful little tool for video journalism and filmmaking in general, especially when hacked. I'm astonished at how good the quality is!

I'm a producer with BBC tv in England. I bought the gh2 over Christmas and have already used it a few times in anger for broadcast. It's an amazingly powerful little tool for video journalism and filmmaking in general, especially when hacked. I'm astonished at how good the quality is!

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I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the hacking aspect... just what tangible benefits hacking brings...especially given that you have used it for broadcast.
I have avoided the whole hacking route as no-one has ever shown/explained properly what the real life benefits are... I see guys gushing over this stuff, but too often it just seems to be geekdom... the video equivalent of taking test photos of brick walls and comparing corner sharpness

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the hacking aspect... just what tangible benefits hacking brings...especially given that you have used it for broadcast.
I have avoided the whole hacking route as no-one has ever shown/explained properly what the real life benefits are... I see guys gushing over this stuff, but too often it just seems to be geekdom... the video equivalent of taking test photos of brick walls and comparing corner sharpness

cheers

K

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It's my understanding that some notable perks to hacking are longer record times, increased bitrate and one that I thought was pretty cool is removing the ISO upper limit of 3200 for video. I saw some samples at ISO 12,800 and I thought they had a very nice film-like quality to them.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the hacking aspect... just what tangible benefits hacking brings...especially given that you have used it for broadcast.
I have avoided the whole hacking route as no-one has ever shown/explained properly what the real life benefits are... I see guys gushing over this stuff, but too often it just seems to be geekdom... the video equivalent of taking test photos of brick walls and comparing corner sharpness

It's my understanding that some notable perks to hacking are longer record times, increased bitrate and one that I thought was pretty cool is removing the ISO upper limit of 3200 for video. I saw some samples at ISO 12,800 and I thought they had a very nice film-like quality to them.

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I get longer record times... but thats a euro USA thing... and the ISO thing...but its the higher bitrates which everybody creams themselves over like a sharp brick in a corner that I am curious about

I can get into enough fights in my own bars without walking into others :smile:

I understand that there are people in photograph who live by numbers... personally i live by pictures....I don't care about numbers till someone shows me they make a difference to my pictures.

hence my response to andysmythe... I want to know from someone who actually has walked the walk rather than talked the talk.. as a BBC producer I am more than guessing the standards he has to work to are pretty high

The higher bitrate helps with complex scenes, and movement. The detail is retained instead of being tossed away. Also when color correction is done, you have more data to work with. It's like working with highly compressed jpegs vs low compression jpegs ( not raw ). You also start losing color info in areas like the sky with higher compression, with stuff like banding showing up.

with all due respect... You are saying all the same stuff I have read on the inter webs

and none of it is put into context... for example

1) I am shooting Vox pop/Talking heads/Interviews for a local TV Station... do I need to hack?

2) Doing a low light indie film... will not hacking ruin my opportunity of a major hollywood contract.... or indeed will I be laughed out of Sundance?

3) I am reimagining Starwars.. there is going to be a lot of CGI... do i need to hack my gh2?

4) I m shooting my kids school play... do i need to hack?

Hacking the GH2 doesn't make you a better Director/Filmaker..... I am sure in some cases it makes a better image.... though i think a lot of the hype is akin to over clocking your PC... impressive for bragging rights but of dubious value if your income depends on it

then of course there all those folks who use the GH2 as a point and squirt camcorder....no amount of hacking is going to make their footage comfortable viewing even to their close relatives

with all due respect... You are saying all the same stuff I have read on the inter webs

and none of it is put into context... for example

1) I am shooting Vox pop/Talking heads/Interviews for a local TV Station... do I need to hack?

2) Doing a low light indie film... will not hacking ruin my opportunity of a major hollywood contract.... or indeed will I be laughed out of Sundance?

3) I am reimagining Starwars.. there is going to be a lot of CGI... do i need to hack my gh2?

4) I m shooting my kids school play... do i need to hack?

Hacking the GH2 doesn't make you a better Director/Filmaker..... I am sure in some cases it makes a better image.... though i think a lot of the hype is akin to over clocking your PC... impressive for bragging rights but of dubious value if your income depends on it

then of course there all those folks who use the GH2 as a point and squirt camcorder....no amount of hacking is going to make their footage comfortable viewing even to their close relatives

K

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1) depends on the TV stations requirements, you can likely get away with not hacking for a local station. The BBC will not accept any GH2 footage, or any other DSLR footage unless you lie about it.

Would be interesting to know why the BBC (or another TV station) would not accept video from a GH2 or other DSLR? How would they know?

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Hook it up to a waveform monitor for one. It's also in the codec. The BBC in particular is very specific in what's acceptable, and publishes a list of cameras along with the acceptable _settings_ for those cameras.

4) least likely scenario - especially if you only intend to onlydo some cuts/edits

In short, most users don't need it or wouldn't even know what to do with it.

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The Hacks (of which there are many variations with all their characteristics!) mainly provide higher bitrate patches with reduced macroblocking - better (as in less videoy) cadence, PAL or NTSC usage, removal of the consumer 29 minute Euro time limit for recording among other things, and the BBC have a raft of GH2 and a variety of other DSLR footage on prime-time telly every night, as do every channel we watch. Great for green screen also as you said! The hacked footage stands up to grading much more robustly (if shot well!) than the stock low bitrate Panny settings. Hacked GH2 footage came 3rd recently in a shootout including 200k cameras - in fact Coppola voted it his favourite footage, interesting what a tweak can do for a camera.

Funnily as it happens the BBC 1 Saturday night prime time Gh2 footage shot with GH2 but a few days ago has been lauded by the producers as "great stuff" and noticeably so - 4:2:0 not dead yet ;p Great that - it ain't about the stick, but how you poke it - days of white coats and Ravensbourne police at the BBC well gone - I mix a wiiiide variety of BBC stuff among others far more restrictive, week in and out year in and out - trust me DSLR footage isn't the bottom rung!

It's a great bonus that a dinky camera can actually compete in any sphere - no bun fight for mines bigger than yours, just nice

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